The Bakken does not stop at the state line, but your rights do. Two owners with identical acreage on either side of it are protected very differently, and the gap is wider than almost anyone realises.
Same formation, same operators in several cases, and two quite different deals for the person receiving the check. If you own on both sides, or you are comparing an offer on Montana acreage with one on North Dakota acreage, these differences are worth more than a negotiation.
Montana taxes non-working interests, which means royalty, at 14.8 percent across essentially every category, under M.C.A. 15-36-304. The working interest gets a 0.5 percent holiday for the first eighteen months of a horizontal well. The royalty owner does not.
North Dakota royalty owners pay a 5 percent gross production tax plus a 5 percent oil extraction tax, so 10 percent, with relief available in some categories.
On the first eighteen months of a Montana horizontal Bakken well, the royalty owner is carrying a severance rate roughly thirty times the working interest's. That is not a loophole anyone is exploiting. It is how the statute is built, and it comes straight off your check.
Under N.D.C.C. 47-16-39.1, North Dakota royalties are due 150 days after production is marketed, and late payments carry 18 percent per annum until paid. The statute is explicit that this runs "without the requirement that the mineral owner ... request the payment of interest." You do not have to ask.
Montana pays faster after the first check, at 60 days for oil and 90 for gas under M.C.A. 82-10-103, against North Dakota's flat 150. Its late payment interest is the maximum rate under M.C.A. 31-1-107, which is a formula rather than a fixed number: the greater of 15 percent or six points above the Federal Reserve prime rate.
So Montana is quicker when things go right and North Dakota is more forceful when they go wrong.
We looked for Montana equivalents of all four in Title 82, Chapter 10, Part 1, which contains only five sections, and did not find them. Montana's own mineral owner guidance directs royalty disputes to district court. We should be precise about what that means: this is our finding from reading the sections that exist, not a statute affirmatively saying Montana has no such rights.
| North Dakota | Montana | |
|---|---|---|
| First payment due | 150 days after marketing | 120 days after initial marketing |
| Ongoing payments | 150 days | 60 days oil, 90 days gas |
| Late payment interest | 18% per annum, automatic | Greater of 15% or prime plus 6 points |
| Small balance rule | Under $50 may be paid semiannually | Under $50 semiannually, under $10 annually |
| Check stub detail | Twelve required items | Eleven required items, plus every charge itemised by line |
| Stub violation | Class B misdemeanour | Misdemeanour, fine to $1,000 |
| Severance borne by royalty | 10% | 14.8% |
| Ownership interest statement | Yes, within 120 days | None located |
| Records inspection right | Yes, with fee shifting | None located |
| Division order cannot be forced | Yes, expressly | No such bar located |
| Ombudsman | Yes | None located |
| Unclaimed mineral proceeds | Three years | Reported as five, worth confirming |
| Nonresident withholding | Applies, confirm the current rate | 6% on net royalty |
Worth knowing if you are weighing which side of the line to hold.
Montana is the growth side in percentage terms. EIA figures through May 2026 show Montana crude production rising from about 51,964 barrels a day in 2021 to about 78,036 in 2025, up roughly 50 percent, with the first five months of 2026 running 4.6 percent ahead of the same period in 2025. North Dakota over the same stretch has been flat to slightly down.
In absolute terms Montana is still small, at roughly seven percent of North Dakota's volume. The activity is concentrated in Richland and Roosevelt Counties, where Kraken, Continental, White Rock and EMEP have been filing Bakken and Three Forks spacing and pooling.
Neither of those facts changes the severance arithmetic. A growing Montana well still hands its royalty owner a 14.8 percent bill.
Send us what you have. We will tell you what each side is actually worth after the tax that applies to it, which is not the same comparison most offers make. Free, no obligation, and we buy in both states.
Get a Free Valuation Ask a LandmanStatutes cited: N.D.C.C. 47-16-39.1, 47-16-39.2, 47-16-39.3 and 38-08-06.3; N.D.A.C. 43-02-06-01 and 43-02-06-01.1; M.C.A. 82-10-103, 82-10-104, 82-10-110, 15-36-304 and 31-1-107. Production figures from EIA through May 2026. Several Montana entries above read "none located," which means we did not find a provision in the sections that exist rather than that a statute says none exists. Berlin Royalties is a mineral buyer and a landman shop in Tulsa, not a law firm or a tax advisor, and tax treatment turns on facts we cannot see from here.